Category: Writing

The winter you left I thought I saw you in every car crash. The first time in a compact spinning its wheels in the ditch. Tow truck, rubberneckers, gridlock. Snow covering the road, a skin too easily broken.

Those are the opening lines of a story inspired by the song “Younger Us” by Japandroids, as seen and heard below. I read it as part of the Rock & Roll Reading Series at AWP Seattle in February 2014.

I’m reading from the novel at Common Good Books on Thursday, November 6th at 7:00 pm. I’ll be sharing the room with the esteemed Robert Martin and Caitlin Bailey, who are likewise reading from their own manuscripts in progress. Come see what happens when you give the room (and the mic!) to a bunch of writers whose work isn’t yet bound between two covers.

It’s sure to be a high-wire night full of daring and bravado—or white-knuckled terror, depending on how easy/difficult it is to read from new work to a room full (one hopes) of friends. Ah, who am I kidding? It’s going to be a blast. Come for the wild ride because this lineup has never happened before and may never happen again.

Thanks to the brilliant Jon Troutman for making this awesome event poster.

Thanks to David Enyeart at Common Good Books for hosting us.

And thanks to the Minnesota State Arts Board for making all this possible.

Steve Woodward is a fiscal year 2014 recipient of an Artist Initiative grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature; and by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The big news around here is that I received a Minnesota State Arts Board grant for 2014. Shock and awe on the blog, I know. Among other things, this means I’ll be taking some time off work to hammer away at a manuscript of my own. I’ll also be putting together a reading featuring local emerging writers who are similarly neck deep in a long project. A sort of celebration of tunnel vision, you might say.

I’ll be assisted in my efforts by the good folk at the Loft literary center, who have these awesome writing studios I’ll be camped out at as much as I can manage. Here’s a pic of the incredible zero distraction spaces they have. Anatomy of the room: Chair, desk, lamp. Window that looks out on a brick wall. Separate reading chair. Doesn’t get better than that, I’m telling you. Wifi? Yep, but I don’t know the password, and I’m not about to ask. Which means they are essentially internet free. Distraction free spaces like this are hard to come by!

Expect periodic updates (i.e. detailed and excessive complaining) throughout the year, so watch this space.

I wrote a feature on Maile Chapman’s excellent gothic novel Your Presence Is Requested at Suvanto that’s up over at the Graywolf Press website. It reminded me how much I like really digging into books and trying to figure out what makes them tick–even if you can only scratch the surface. So expect me to be posting a few such attempts here in the near future. Until then, though, go check out Suvanto. The weather’s been terrible around here, and there’s nothing like a gothic novel to cure a late spring depression.